Thomas Hill

Tom graduated from Western University (Canada) with a BSc (Hons) in Biology, after spending a year at the University of Ottawa. Subsequently, he obtained an MSc in Biomedical and Molecular Sciences Research from King’s College London where his research focused on the role of short-chain free fatty acid receptors, FFAR2 and FFAR3, in the regulation of insulin secretion, under the supervision of Professor Shanta Persaud. He then completed his PhD at King’s College London working with Professor Peter Jones and Dr James Bowe where he investigated the role of Kisspeptin/GPR54 on islet β-cell function during pregnancy.

From October 2018, Tom joined the University of Oxford as a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft and Professor Patrik Rorsman at DPAG and OCDEM. His research area was assessing the regulation of islet δ-cell secretion in health and disease. Using a Cre-Lox transgenic model to silence somatostatin secretion from the δ-cells of mouse islets, he aimed to determine the role of locally-derived somatostatin on insulin and glucagon release. This project built on his past experience of working with transgenic animal models with respect to investigating paracrine changes within the islets of Langerhans through measurements of integrated islet function both in vitro and in vivo.

After completing his fellowship in 2022, Thomas continues his work in OCDEM with Patrik Rorsman and Ben Davies (NDM), identifying potential candidates to reverse the dysregulated glucagon secretion seen in hypoglycaemia.

Reduced somatostatin signalling leads to hypersecretion of glucagon in mice fed a high-fat diet. J Kellard et al. (2020), Mol Metab, 40

Somatostatin secretion by Na+-dependent Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release in pancreatic delta-cells. Vergari E. et al, (2020), Nat Metab, 2, 32 - 40

A role for placental kisspeptin in β cell adaptation to pregnancy. Bowe JE. et al, (2019), JCI Insight, 4